Last days in Tokyo

So we still had a few days in Tokyo, before it was time to head south, to Okinawa. We naturally wanted to make the most of our last few days in this wonderful city... Especially as we had a bit of time, since we no longer had any Japanese classes to attend. 

On Monday, we decided to explore Omotesando, which is one of the trendiest areas of Tokyo (which is to say it's very hip indeed!). Omotesando is a shopping boulevard, Tokyo's answer to the Champs Elysees, if you will. Omotesando itself is a wee bit our of our price range (although one of the best souvenir shops in Tokyo, Oriental Bazaar, is located there), but the streets off Omotesando are full of quirky little shops, and full of interesting characters. 

We even found a shrine (dedicated to the famous naval admiral Toho, after his death), and a peaceful garden in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. After walking down famous Cat Street (one of the more famous shopping streets), we eventually found ourselves in Shibuya. Before heading back to Kitasenju, we decided to check out one of the shopping malls near the train station, which has a nice panoramic view platform on the 8th floor, from which we were treated to quite a nice view of the famous Shibuya pedestrian crossing (you know, the one made famous by the movie "Lost in Translation"), for example.

The next day, we decided to do something entirely different. The plan was to head down to Asakusa, and ride down the Sumida river by boat to Hama Rikyu garden. On the way to Asakusa train station, we dropped by beautiful Sensoji temple, my favorite temple in Tokyo. We were lucky enough to catch the golden dragon dance, when we were there. The spectacle, which involves a troupe of dancers carrying a long paper dragon through the crowds, was rather impressive!

The river cruise wasn't all that interesting. Strangely enough, the riverbanks of Tokyo aren't all that interesting (architecturally or otherwise). Still, it was a nicer way to get to the gardens than taking the metro! 

The Hama Rikyu gardens, on the other hand, were very nice indeed. The gardens have a long and varied history (it was used as a duck hunting ground, as an imperial garden/resting place, until it was opened up to the public). The highlight of the place is a nice little pond, with a beautiful tea-house located in the middle of it. The tea-house was used by the emperor to welcome and entertain guests in olden days. I would say the place ranks as one of the absolutely most beautiful spots in Tokyo.

After checking out the garden, we had a walk around the nearby Shiodome district, which is very different indeed from the gardens. Shiodome is a relatively recently developed (it was opened up in 2002) skyscraper district, which now houses offices, museums, apartments, restaurants, and plenty of entertainment options. It's pretty different from the other, older districts of Tokyo, an interesting place to wander about. We even ran into a TV shoot by accident (involving a rather kawaii yellow/red/white character).

We finished off a rather busy day in fancy Ginza, which is of course one of the premier shopping districts of Tokyo. After a coffee break, we finished in Dover Street Market, a ridiculously trendy collection of shops. 

On Wednesday, we decided to check out Ueno zoo. Not the sort of thing we normally visit (not sure watching animals stuck in too-small cages is my thing, really...), but we decided to give it a go anyway. And it was kind of good fun, actually. The main draw of the zoo are the two pandas, that were graciously donated to Japan by the Chinese government. And they are pretty interesting animals, for sure, somehow majestic and cute at the same time. 

Apart from the pandas, we enjoyed the gorillas and other monkeys, which are always very entertaining. We were also very impressed by the polar bear swimming under fake icebergs (not sure it's very reasonably to keep polar beers in a rather hot country like Japan, though...). All in all, a pretty cool experience, then!

Thursday, then, was our last day. We didn't really have a lot of time to do sightseeing, since we had our bags to pack, and the flight was in the early afternoon. We did have one last walk around Kitasenju, a part of Tokyo we've grown to really like, and which we'll miss for sure. And of course, we had to have a last lunch with our good friend Matsuoka, who's helped us a lot in getting adjusted into life in Japan. He took us, as always, to an excellent restaurant serving fish. Oishikatta desu!

We will very much miss Tokyo, but we will be back in the not-too distant future, that's for sure! So it's "jaa mata" rather than "sayonara"!